Kobe Bryant’s competitive edge didn’t just spring up midway into his legendary career. It was what made him the player he was right from Day 1. There have been several stories from former teammates, coaches, and rivals about how locked in Bryant truly was. But what was he like before he turned into an adult? The same Black Mamba the basketball community fell in awe of.
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Dana Barros, a former Philadelphia 76ers star, had a tale that cemented Bryant’s legacy as perhaps the most dedicated NBA athlete of all time. Barros was a guest on the One Two Combo program, where he was asked if he ever got a chance to play against Kobe. That’s when he revealed that the first time he met him was during a workout with then-assistant coach Tom Thibodeau.
Thibs was Barros’ workout coach in Philadelphia, and during one session he brought the former All-Star over to introduce him to a 17-year-old Kobe. “I come out with Thibs, I’m doing my pick-and-roll, and he walks me over and introduces me to this kid,” he began.
“After the game, Thibs comes to the locker room and he goes, ‘Hey that kid is going to the NBA next year. He just asked me for every pick & roll you did this year. He wants it on tape. He wants to know how you are scoring so easily. How you’re utilizing the pick & roll,'” Barros shared.
“He’s 17 years old bro,” Barrows added. “He wants to know how I pull up and they go under. Thibs made him like a tape with 250 pick & rolls on it.”It just goes to show that the hours of hard work Kobe put in at the gym weren’t some random bug that hit him. He knew that to be the best, it was necessary to dedicate all his time to perfecting his craft.
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It’s this very reason that Barros chose Kobe over Lebron James in terms of who he thought was better. “I’m taking the psycho guy. I’m taking the crazy mother f******. You know what I mean? Kobe is crazy. He’s an assassin.”
Kobe has been called a lot of things in his career. An assassin is definitely the best description. He killed you everywhere. Whether it was from the mid-range, defensively, aggressively, or from downtown. It didn’t matter. If Kobe thought you were better than him in one area of the game, he would upend his whole life until that wrong had been righted.
Bryant demanded too much from himself
Bryant was incredibly hard on himself, especially during his teenage years. Famed sports executive Sonny Vaccaro illustrated this by recalling an interaction he had with a young Bryant at an Adidas-sponsored sports camp.
“Kobe runs over to me and he says, ‘I want to thank you, Mr. Vaccaro, for inviting me to camp, but I want to apologize,” Vaccaro revealed in an interview with GrowthX.
“Oh, there’s nothing to apologize about, you made the All-Star team. Kobe Bryant said to me, ‘No, Mr. Vaccaro, I’m coming back next year and I’m going to be MVP of the whole camp.’”
It’s one of the most tragic yet endearing parts of the Los Angeles Lakers legend. Winning was not enough. He had to be the best. Becoming a champion wasn’t enough. He needed to be Finals MVP. Other than Michael Jordan, there truly wasn’t another competitor as fierce or as dedicated to professional basketball. And honestly, there probably never will be again.
